Incredible images of biggest great white shark on record

Photographer Juan Oliphant snapped this incredible monster of the deep in the waters off Hawaii as she feasted on the carcass of a dead whale.

The largest reliably measured great white was caught off Western Australia in 1984. It measured 6m from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.

This beauty could be even bigger than that - though nobody has dared to actually take a tape measure to her. Yet.

University of Hawaii shark expert Dr Melanie Hutchinson told local radio KHON2 the animal could be as much as 6.5 metres in length.

The intimidating apex predator was first spotted at the weekend as divers explored the surrounds of a dead sperm whale which had been towed some 30km offshore after washing up on a Hawaii reef.

A diver reaches out to touch ‘Deep Blue’, the enormous shark spotted off Hawaii earlier this week. Picture: @JuanSharks/Juan Oliphant/OneOceanDiving.Com

TOOTHY CELEBRITY

Photographer Juan Oliphant swam alongside the monster shark as he indulged in an 'all you can eat' feast on the rotting carcass.

"Today was extremely special because while I work with (great) white sharks all around the world they are extremely rare in Hawaii and this individual may be one of the largest recorded …," he says in a media statement.

"This gentle giant swam up and brushed up against our boat repeatedly. There is a theory that large females come here when they are possibly pregnant trailing whales."

Not on the menu … the gorged, and likely pregnant, Deep Blue showed little interest in the divers admiring her. Picture: @JuanSharks/Juan Oliphant/OneOceanDiving.Com

It's not the first time 'Deep Blue' has been seen.

She has distinctive skin markings, such as the way the white colouration is patterned around the gills, the fins and tail. But she was also tagged when first found two decades ago.

Most recently, Deep Blue was seen some 4000km away, off Mexico, in July last year.

"About 20 per cent of the population from California and Mexico migrate here every year or every other year," Dr Hutchinson said.

Oliphant says Deep Blue is just doing her thing, and should be let be.

"This is sharks role in the ecosystem, to pick off the dead, dying, weak, wounded, sick, injured, etc," he says. "I have so much respect for sharks for their ecological role, scientifically, culturally as aumakua, and from a conservation standpoint I've dedicated my life to speaking up for them and educating others about them and their plight while studying to continue to understand more about them."

Domeier also says he believes the shark is pregnant, and will likely give birth to a litter of pups in a few months time.

But how big is she, really?

Oliphant and his fellow divers put Deep Blue at 20ft by 8ft wide (6m by 2.5m). Other divers estimate Deep Blue to be 5.5m long - still a solid size, but somewhat short of the West Australian record.

"It's a big girl," Natural History's director for Shark Research George Burgess told Motherboard. "Looks like maybe 18 feet. Hyperbole is part of Shark Week so you gotta be worried about some of the facts."